What is a Humidor?

What is a Humidor?

So you’re looking for answers, what is a humidor ?. I’ve got answers, along with humidor reviews. A cigar humidor is a place to store your cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. This specific type of storage controls humidity & is typically a box, cabinet, portable, or an electric cooler. Cigar Humidors allow a controlled amount of airflow and is equipped with a device that maintains the humidity.

Cigar humidors are typically made from Spanish cedar due to the fact that it is great at retaining & removing humidity, as it’s needed. This is crucial to properly storing your cigars, and having a properly functioning humidor that lasts. Over time your humidor will gain and lose humidity from opening & closing your humidor, along with properly seasoning your humidor. Spanish Cedar also repels Cigar Beetles, which latch onto tobacco while they are still in tobacco fields.

Choosing a quality humidor does make a difference; cheap humidors could potentially waste your time & cost you more money in the long run. When choosing a quality humidor, pay attention to the wood and materials used to make the cigar storage. Finding a humidor that is made from particleboard is honestly a sin—DO NOT BUY THESE. Humidor Manufacturers create humidors with Spanish cedar inserts, and other types of wood on the exterior to keep costs down. On top of that, not all humidors are made of wood; there are quality humidors out there that are not even made with wood. A few quality travel humidors are made of plastic with foam inserts to maintain humidity. These still aren’t a horrible option.

Most humidors come with a built in hygrometer, which is a small dial that measures humidity within the small area. Hygrometers can be analog with a small dial, or they can be digital like a car dashboard. Along with a hygrometer, your humidor could come with a thermometer to keep track on the internal temperature to make sure the humidor doesn’t get too cold or too hot.

According to Wikipedia‘s take on ‘what is a humidor’: A humidor is any kind of box or room with constant humidity that is used to store cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. For private use, small wooden boxes holding a few dozen cigars are common, while cigar shops may have walk-in humidors. Humidors can be used to maintain consistent humidity level for other goods; the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team stores game balls in a large humidor at their home stadium, Coors Field, to counteract the effects of Denver’s low humidity. Many humidors use hygrometers to monitor their humidity levels.

Why is temperature important? Well those Tobacco beetles, if they laid eggs in your cigars—Those little bastards hatch at around 75 degrees. If this happens, you will have to freeze your cigars for a few days, then put your cigars in the refrigerator for a few additional days to clear your sticks of this infection. To learn more about this visit our ‘How to care for your cigar humidor’ page.

I prefer a humidor that has a capacity larger that what I intend to actually store. For example, if I plan to store 50-75 cigars, I prefer a humidor that can hold up to 100 cigars. I like to have a little extra space in there to stick my Cigar Lighter, Cigar cutters, and a handful of other cigar accessories.

What is a humidor? The simple answer

So, to sum up What a Cigar Humidor actually is. It’s a Spanish cedar box to store your precious cigars in that controls the levels of humidity to properly let your cigars age gracefully over time. Cigars are much like a fine wine; they age very well with the proper storage conditions. I would love to hear your feedback, stories, tips, tricks, or accessories you store in your humidor below.